Just last week in the eastern entrance to Bafoussam, a team of road safety personnel ran helter-skelter for their dear lives as a bus virtually ran into them. There was no loss of human life; but the incident was sufficiently symptomatic of the generalized situation of insecurity on roads across the country. Here were people out to ensure that road users abide by the High-way Code almost caught “live” in the spiral of unjustified and unjustifiable road accidents that have gripped the nation recently. Yesterday, Cameroon Tribune published hair-raising statistics on the highly accident-prone Yaounde-to-Douala highway. Statistics provided by the Ministry of Transport, covering 2004, 2005 and 2006 indicated that on the 231-kilometer stretch of road, there were 580 accidents of which 193 resulted in deaths. Of this number, 1,316 were wounded, while 325 people lost their lives.
More recent statistics are not available, but many agree that the rate of accidents on the road has been steadily on the rise. The same can be said of other major roads in the country with the best known being the Douala-Nkongsamba-Bafoussam; Yaounde-Bafia-Bafoussam; Ngaoundere-Garoua-Maroua; Bafoussam-Foumban; Douala-Tiko roads.
The Ministry of Transport has been in a very proactive posture, trying the best it could to hold down this exponential rise in the number of accidents. It has taken a number of initiatives to stem the rise. The best known are the regular suspensions inflicted on a number of bus companies which get involved in accidents. Recently, we have heard of Amour Mezam, Kami Voyages, International Lines, Finnex and the like. In as much as some of these measures have caused transport companies to sit up, the over-all aim of ensuring security on the nation’s roads can hardly be attained by sanctions alone.
Moreover, sanctions concern only an insignificant portion of the actors on the roads. Whereas accidents concerning the big bus companies are brought to public knowledge, tens, if not hundreds, of other accidents involving smaller vehicles or personal vehicles are never given the same media attention and publicity. And yet many lives are lost in these other accidents. Their perpetrators are never ever punished or prosecuted and some even get away without a formal charge or a police report. Sanctions probably have an effect because of the emotional environment that immediately follows an accident and during which the laying of blame may assuage some of the embittered family members who lose friends or dear ones. But their long-term effectiveness is hard to determine; not when many of them see their suspensions lifted a few weeks or months after when public authorities decipher that public disapprobation has plummeted. The road insecurity situation is sufficiently grave to call for a thorough assessment of initiatives taken so far and to imagine new and more efficient strategies.
The recent decision by the Minister of Transport to impose a basic minimum academic qualification for obtaining of a driver’s license was met with much criticism as many said the move will throw out thousands of citizens from their jobs with the attendant social upheavals that will entail. But the present situation requires shock therapy. Only courageous and firm policies can stop the irresponsible bloodletting on our roads as observed today.
